The Renaissance
by Yronhand
Summary: The galaxy reels under the wars of the three races. Now a new hidden power comes into play after years of hiding from its brethren. But in the shadows, a greater evil awaits.
1. The Renaissance Prologue

The blinking lights of the great battleship Panacea glowed in the blackness of space

Prologue 

Seventeen years after the events of Brood Wars 

The blinking lights of the great battleship _Panacea glowed in the blackness of space. The sound of Beethoven flowed softly within the spacious quarters of the Admiral. A fair skinned hand reached out to cradle within its grasp a thin crystal glass, the color of red wine within it. The man drew it to his lips then stopped, and instead tilted his head to smell the aroma of the spirits. He smiled faintly, apparently contented with the fragrance the drink gave off. He sipped at it and closed his eyes, relishing the taste of the aged liquor. "Piquant enough." He mumbled, and turned around to face another person in the room. "What do you think Alric?"_

His friend tasted his own portion of the drink and after a moment shook his head. "I am not enough a connoisseur of wine to be able to judge this Sir Marcus." Alric smiled. "Although to the best of my taste buds ability, I should say this batch of Vodka is quite exquisite. Where did you get this?" Marcus turned around and faced the darkness of space outside the thin pane of Plexiglas. "From the Galadium sector." Alric's eyes widened in surprise for a moment and he slowly stood up and placed his Admiral's cap on his head.

"The Galadium sector? How interesting. And how does that explain this?" Holding his glass of Vodka up to the window, the reflection of it clear to both. Marcus faced his friend as spoke. "A few days ago, a scout party of six Blackwing stealth fighters encountered a ship warping into the edges of Galladium space. The ship was identified as a derelict Behemoth Mark-Four battlecruiser. You know that our ships of that type were phased out over a decade ago and mothballed." He walked over to his desk and opened up a small control panel. Alric followed when Marcus motioned him over to stand beside him behind his desk.

Pressing a few keys on the board, a projector popped out and flashed into life. A projection flashed into existence the image of a badly mauled ship its focus. A pair of Blackwings uncloaked and sparkled into visibility, cruising towards the battlecruiser. As Marcus continued, another pair of fighters flashed into view and shadowed the first pair of stealth fighters. "The two flights immediately called for backup despite the obvious harmlessness of the devastated space craft. Soon one of my cruisers, the _Nostrum, arrived on scene about an hour after." He pressed a button and the recording done by one of the outlying Blackwings sped up. A few seconds later the projection showed the flash of a warp in, and the shape of the __Nostrum came into view. He skipped a few more frames, stopping and playing it at normal speed when a pair of fighters and a trio of dropships exited the bays of the cruiser, heading towards the abandoned craft._

"The ship's Captain, Donovan Ricarte, was smart enough to board and order his men to retrieve all the remaining data on-board. His Intel department on the cruiser managed to analyze what remained of the Behemoth cruiser's main computer core." He tapped another set of keys and a new window popped into sight. It showed an audio only recording of what seemed to be the ship's last moments. Alric nodded, and Marcus began the playback.

"—are making a series ofjumps, final destination at Dun Sadan starbase—" The voice crackled and came back alive again. "—under heavy attack! Have over a dozen wings of Zerg lifeforms swarming over us, task force is down to three capital ships and—" The voice faded again. "—only surviving craft, making blind warp to star coordinates 202.11.27.15! Will try to reestablish conta—" At that the recording abruptly cut off. Alric looked slightly disturbed at this. Marcus continued on though, apparently unaffected by the recording. "We also managed to determine that as the ship warped into the system, that its hull was finally breached completely as it entered warp space. Its structure and warp drives survived long enough to get to the coordinates input previously, which so happens to be the Galladium system's star."

Alric nodded, mulling over the questions in his head. Marcus spoke after a few more moments. "As we can see, the Zerg are expanding quite rapidly, even for their species, and at this point have control of over thirty prominent star systems, and colonies and footholds in over a hundred more major planets. At this rate of growth, they will be too massive for the Terrans in the coreward regions to combat effectively, even if some of those governments allied with the Protoss remnant." A star graph appeared, replacing the recording screen. The galaxy was now mostly a shade of red, signifying the Zerg occupied area. Of the rest, roughly half of that was in white, the color representing Terran space, excluding the UED, and a thirdwas mostly blue, signifying Protoss space. The last part was a mix of white, blue, and red, the now contested regions where the war was being fought.

Marcus tapped a few more keys, and the graph changed once again, zooming out to include a new region of space, represented by the color green. "And this is our region of control, spanning over twenty large star systems, each fully colonized and modernized, and with bases and colonies on fifty six other planetary systems, with our control in those areas gradually growing." Alric took another sip at his glass, and looked at Marcus. "What are you implying my friend?" Marcus' eyebrows furrowed slightly, and he shook his head. "I do not need to elaborate further Admiral, you know very well what I am intimating at. You are more than intelligent enough to know what I am thinking."

Alric breathed in deeply and exhaled. He slowly put his glass down and fixed his crisp blue-gray uniform. He sighed and shook his head lightly. Marcus watched his old friend carefully. The admiral then fixed his cap again and slowly strode towards the door leading to the passageway outside. Marcus spoke before his friend exited. "I've taken the liberty of giving a full analysis on the date we have recovered to your Executive Officer. Please, take the time to study it, and think upon it before we need to act because of any further tragedy."

Alric turned to look at the Commodore. "My friend, you need not worry about that. Your pertinacity to convince our governmentto act against the Zerg has borne fruit. Use it well, I do not wish to see the _Panacea a derelict in space like the UED ship __Aleksander." With the he tossed a small disc onto the couch by the door, and left, the hiss of the doorway sliding shut. Marcus closed down the projector and quickly hurried over to pick up and study the item his companion left him._

_"Red Eyes Only" it read on the cover. Hiding his shock at receiving the piece of article, he walked over briskly to his desk and sat down on his armchair, and opened the small black disc. It split open to reveal a small square microchip, barely the size of one of his little finger's fingernail. Somewhat apprehensively, he plucked it out and managed to insert it into his console panel without dropping it. The console flashed into life, and as expected, it requested for a retinal and handprint scan. The appropriate scanners popped out and he submitted himself to the scrutiny of the instruments._

With a soft ping, the program continued on, satisfied with his meeting the required specifications. Belatedly, he pushed a button to seal shut his door, and activated a small bubble field around him to shield him from any spy equipment that may have found its way into his room. Within moments, the self-running program finished uploading the information, and the chip was ejected from the slot. As he reached forward to retrieve and dispose of it, a holovideo began to play from the projector that just came to life.

He dropped the chip into the disposal bin, and it was immediately vaporized. That done he faced the loading recording. The bits coalesced to for the dark black military suit of a man. The uniform was of standard cut, but the third extra stripe that graced the man's shoulder showed him to have the rank of a Fleet Admiral. _What has Alric brought me? The commodore mused, watching the unknown man's back as the figure pressed a series of keys on some sort of pad._

The man abruptly straightened and turned around to face the partly startled Marcus. _What? This is Admiral Verdan Galle, why is he speaking to me? The man brushed an unseen piece of lint from his immaculately stainless suit before looking up to speak to him. "Commodore Marcus Brightonn, commander of the 59th Fleet of the Velius Protectorate, respond to this call of duty." __Typical formal dispatch of new orders. "As of 1845 hours, Velius Central Time, a small force of Zerg scouts appeared on the edge of the Gradius star system. The small force of approximately sixty Mutalisk type life forms and roughly four Overlord life forms were completely annihilated by two squadrons of our Blackwing squadrons. We sustained casualties limited to the damage of our ships, and no loss of life."_

Galle paused before proceeding. "Three hours after that, another force of Zerg life form appeared in greater numbers, attempting to land a cerebrate and a hatchery life form on one of our planetary systems. Again they were repulsed by the planet's defense forces with minimal losses." Galled glanced down at something. "Since we have now been finally discovered by the Zerg, and probably by our Terran brethren, the Protectorate has chosen you to have the honor to lead the first of our military forces into Zerg infested space." Galle's hand reached down to press something and looked up again.

"This is no joy ride Commodore. Even if our Terran brothers nearer the core have managed to fight the Zerg with some successes equipped with older technology, it will not be easy for us to win this war." He straightened up. "The might of our government, its people, and its military is undeniable, but nevertheless, we are prepared to face the worst. Do not show any sympathy towards these mutations of life. Annihilate them, spare not a single gun to turn against them." Galle's eyes blazed with the fire of war. "For us, for all humanity, and for all civilized life in the galaxy, we must turn the tide now!" He spoke, punctuating the last word with his pointing finger.

The man recomposed himself before continuing. "For the duration of this assignment, you have been appointed Supreme Commander of the Expeditionary Fleet, and all other forces to follow you unless ordered otherwise by an order direct from Fleet Command. For the duration of this campaign, your command shall include the 18th Velius Starfleet, the 27th Galladium Starfleet, the 101st Phalla Starfleet, and the 90th and 3rd Jonodan Starfleets. As well as your own original commands. " Galle pressed another set of keys on his panel, just below the view of the recording screen.

"Lastly, the 9th Elite Guard has been consigned to you to do with as you wish. Unlike the rest, the command of this one is permanent, regardless of whatever may happen. Treat it as you would your 59th." Galle gave him a grim smile. "Good luck Fleet Admiral Marcus Brightonn. Let us hope you keep that rank for a long time. He chuckled lightly as he reached to end the recording. "If you're lucky, you may keep that rank permanently."

As the recording faded from sight, Marcus leaned back on his seat. _Fleet Admiral? Me? That's higher than even Alric! He shook his head in near disbelief. He contemplated it and after a moment of thought, got up and unlocked his room. He retreived his cap and called in his second-in-command. Alric Justin Denoshin, his old friend's second son. Marcus was never one to dally around much, and as soon as Justin arrived he and the officer began to talk._

And plan.


	2. The Renaissance: Light and Darkness

The Renaissance

The Renaissance : The Light and Shadows 

It was three months later, three months since the Velius Expeditionary Fleet left Galladium for the reaches of Zerg space. In that time they targeted and liberated their first system: Radan. Their first bastion in the sea of Zerg space, they methodically eliminated each and every piece of Zerg life form be it an infested being, or the ranks of Zerg animals, on planet, and from there destroyed all other Zerg within the Radan star system. By now the Zerg broods' attention was drawn to the Velius forces, and they would soon be feeling the full force of the Zerg Broods.

"We have six more eggs breaking open at secondary Zerg Hive cluster!" The combat frequency of the White Knight Blackwing Squadron was a clamor or voices, pilots shouting all over, warnings being called out. It was a pretty chaotic mess here at Helonis. The next closest star system, the Helonis was currently being assaulted by the Fleet, and fighting mercilessly against the forces of three different Zerg broods. Of the three, one brood's cerebrate had been destroyed thanks to a massive psychic assault, the only way to truly kill a cerebrate.

The other two were more careful, especially this one.

"Take them down before they reach the air!" The order of Commander Nicholai "Nick" Voredan was quickly acknowledged by a pair of his squadron's Blackwings, White Six and Seven, and they tore away to dive down on the emerging mutalisk life forms.A single plasma missile from each of them destroyed one mutalisk each, and the splash damage singed the wings of another nearby. Their guns came online and began firing as they got in range of the remaining four. A hail of high velocity steel slugs ripped open the midsection of the scarred airborne insects, and soon the last three began to respond, launching acidic spores.

"This is White Leader to the _Physic, this area is clear of Devourer life forms, we are taking down the remaining Mutalisks. We have zero on the scanners for Scourge life forms. Request support to destroy remaining spore colony structures." Nick called into his fighter's communications link, directly connected with the fighter command of the orbiting ship above him. A moment later a voice replied. "This is the __Physic, we are deploying a squadron of dropships as we speak. Escort them and take down any sunken colony structures near their drop zone. The groundlings will help take down your problem."_

"Affirmative _Physic Command, White Leader out." He cut the transmission and opened another frequency. "All White Knights, finish current duels and form up on me, then proceed to coordinates 33.45 Sigma Echo." A flurry of acknowledgments from his squadron greeted his ears. He noticed the lack of two numbers though. "White Twelve and White Nine report in please." The voice of White Ten, Nine's wingman answered. "White Nine's broadband communication system is down Sir, right now he's unable to talk to anyone but me." "Roger that, what of White Twelve?"_

His second in command, Captain Trechelo, answered that for him. "Twelve took a shot through his shields Commander, his craft has made an emergency crash landing at location 32.44 Sigma Echo." _Damn it. He cursed, then shook his head. It was actually worth it though, and in all likeliness Jeran was just unconscious in his fighter. But he'd never had a loss in his whole career of commanding the Knights. __This just shows that the Zerg are tough customers I guess. He smiled grimly to himself. __Then again, compared to other Terran forces out of the Velius fleet, these losses are miraculous._

A mere three minutes ago, he and his squadron, along with his group's counterparts, the Black Knights, had took on a three dozen mutalisks with another dozen devourers tagging along. The battle up there was brief, and although the clusters below had managed to spawn just over forty more of those accursed mosquitoes, they had managed to sustain only one ship downed. _I suppose that against 3 to 1 odds me and the squadron did pretty well. I suppose._

The thunderous sound of the great Trentino class dropship landing on the planet rattled the ears of Jean Francois Demite. The commando smacked the side of his head as the ringing ebbed. In the main hold of the three hundred meter long transport, over a thousand soldiers disembarked onto Helonis Prime. The ground war had begun, as slowly the rest of the ship's occupants, large eight meter high humanoid-looking war machines, nicknamed battletitans, opened fire with their array of weapons.

Following the small group of titans was the main punching power of the Velius Army: their deadly battle tanks. The tanks formed up into groups of six, and the tank squadrons quickly drove one to support their infantry. It would take his group of elite warriors however to win the battle here, and destroy those vile cerebrate slugs.The small room hissed open, and his team exited to get in the awaiting troop transport awaiting them. The psychic commando stood and slung his gear across his shoulder and with one more glance through the glass, left to board the vehicle that awaited him.

He stepped into the vehicle, roughly the same size of a tank, and just as heavily armored and shielded but with no weapons save a pair of light machine guns. Its driver quickly ran through the startup procedures, and in a short while the combat transport hovered its way out of the starship. All around he could see the fire of guns, missiles, lasers and other less conventional weaponry. Against the Zerg, the Velius Armed Forces had permission to use any kind of arms necessary, as long as it would not harm any Terran survivors.

The transport shuddered as a building nearby infested with Zerg exploded into flames and debris. The animal screams of the dying Zerg barely registered in Jean's ears. He'd been at Radan, and within moments of that battle had developed a significant distaste for the insects. The co-driver unbuckled his belts, and stood up. He walked over to the gun controls, and began to direct the pair of autocannons that was the craft's main weapon.

Aside from the sounds of war around them, and the blaring of the guns above him, the inside of the C-Transport was devoid of sound. They didn't need to talk. Each knew the other's thoughts, feeling the ripples of emotions from each other. That was the problem with psychics, secrets were very hard to keep from another. _But who cares. We just need to do our job and kill that cerebrate. A small mental smile formed, as he remembered him and his team warping the cerebrate's mind and body. Its mental screams were horrifying if others could hear them out loud, but to the trained commandos of the psychic world, the scream was a wonderful song._

_Those dullards die without their hordes of insects, and those insects die without their oversized brain slug doing all the thinking. He straightened and began checking his equipment. __A perfect arrangement, when either one is gone, both die. He chuckled lightly. __That's life isn't it Mr. Zerg brood leader? The driver spoke to them, informing them that they were nearing the main hive cluster, the most likely place where the cerebrate would be cowering._

"Our forces are just reaching the perimeters of the main Zerg base. Watch yourself out there, you don't have this tin can's little hide shielding you anymore." The man smirked as he opened the door. The other five commandos quickly deployed around the vehicle, all of them already hidden and cloaked. Jean spoke just before following them out and cloaking. "Don't worry monsieur. That snail is about to feel the heat of a nice Gallic barbecue."

Jean jumped out into the devastated city, cloaked as he landed with his gun firm in his grip. He slid into a near pile of rubble as the armored transport made its escape from the base. As it departed, a small group of hydralisks erupted from the ground to ambush it. Their acidic spit and thorns colored the vehicle's heavy shields, but only a few managed to penetrate and actually hit the thick armor plating off the craft. His team of commandos quickly sped into action, each of them firing a single shot into the softer parts of the creatures' carapaces.

Jean himself barely fired more than two shots when the group of hydralisks dropped dead to the ground, their corpses staining the ruined city's ground. Turning on his secure communication link to his men, he spoke into the mike. Within their helmets, each replied via the secure frequency. "Scores." He said. Of the five, only two replied with "one". He shrugged. "Good enough. Three, do you have the brain's location?"

"This is Three, have a large amount of traffic from Twelve Zero Six Zero Two Wotan." He checked his HUD and brought up information on the location. His sensors confirmed it. "Designate point location as Area One. Designate current position as Area Drop. Form up and proceed with caution, hold fire until we reach and neutralize the target." A series of Affirmatives and Rogers greeted his ears. "Move out." At that the commando team made its way across the Zerg base, the only sign of their presence barely a blur on any sensor screen.

As the ground troops made their way through the second line of defenses the Zerg hive had just hastily spawned and morphed, up above Nick and his men were dodgin the last of the spoer colonies' fire. "Four, you have two on your tail, watch it!" He yelled. The cooler voice of White Four replied. "I'm having trouble shaking them." The skill of Four's piloting capabilities showed however when he managed to escape one of the spores following him, and receive only a splash damage from another.

"Nice work Four. Alpha flight, report status." Each one responded. "Bravo flight report status." After a few seconds the voice of White Five came through the chatter that was disrupting their squadron frequency. "All accounted for. Minimal loss to operational status, Sir.""Roger that Bravo flight, calling Charlie flight, report status." "This is Charlie flight, still in here boss. Eleven's got some scrapes, but has 97.5% operational status."

"All flights accounted for. Did we get that last spore colony?" Glancing at the scanners he got his answer. They'd bloodied it into a soggy pile of mincemeat. "How many of those things left?" "The ground troops have taken down the three in the fourth sector, Sir. Sectors One and Three are clean as well. Only this one has any left." "Thank you Six. Knights, this mean we have just one more tower of insects to vaporize than we are home free."

He nudged his control stick and the agile fighter quickly veered off towards the last remaining spore colony. The lone tower began spitting spores at him and the rest as soon as they got in range. The occasional hit shuddered his ship, but dealt little damage. "All fighters, fire at will." At his command thirty-six heavy lasers opened up on the collective target, and as the bolts of energy rained down on the form, geysers of burnt carapace and underlying flesh were scattered over the nearby terrain.

"Good work team! Control, all anti-air capabilities of the Zerg in this area have been eliminated." He opened up the transmission line with the _Physic. "Good job White Knights, the Captain sends his thanks. Proceed to sub-orbit level and prepare to escort the cruiser down. The ground troops seem to be needing some air support."__ "Affirmative __Physic, proceeding to upper atmosphere." Nick closed down the line and selected his squadron's frequency once again. "All flights, form up on me." The scattered ships of the Squadron responded with military efficiency, and they soon swerved upward._

The adrenaline rush he'd felt earlier was mostly gone now, the battle eating up much of his energy. As his ships rose towards space, the cruiser slowly descended. Just as they were moving into formation around the capital ship, Nick caught a small speck of red on his sensor screen. His scanners show a massing group of heat signs, apparently the Zerg still had some air power left.

"White Leader—" The _Physic's fighter control officer appeared abruptly into his communicator screen. Nick cut him off with a nod. "We have them Sir, you may proceed planetside." Before the man could respond, Nick switched channels and spoke to his squadron. "We have a hostile group of Zerg forms, let's take them down." He pushed up his throttle and the Blackwing rocketed forwards, the flare of his fusion drives leaving a trail across the sky._

Jean picked himself up from the ground as saw the shadowy shape of Blackhawks fade into the sky. He disarmed his detonator, and slipped it back onto his utility belt. He was just about to blow up the spore colony when the squadron of aircraft suddenly appeared as opened fire on the towering edifice, cutting it down and reducing it to a burnt organic paste. _I would've liked that honor. He shrugged and began to click his Comm link._

In short order, one by one, the rest of his team formed up on him. He nodded, and once again they stealthily swept away from the dead structure to find their target. En route hundreds more of zerglings and hydralisks erupted from their eggs, and sped towards the front lines, reinforcing their brethren. Within a few more moments, larvae became eggs again, completing the cycle or spawning more.

"Where is it?" One of his team checked again. "Not far Sir, just a few hundred more meters to go." Indeed, as they turned past the next block he spotted the writhing mass of the cerebrate located in the middle of what once was a park. They stopped and spread out with a silent command. They knew what to do. In seconds, Jean traversed the terrain and slid to a halt beside a pile of rubble. From where he was he could see a quartet of zerglings guarding the creature. Putting his rifle against his shoulder, he quickly dispatched the things with lethal efficiency.

_One, two, three, gone. A deadly round from hi rifle each pierced the brains of each zergling, ripping each one's head from its torso. __Move! He called to his men. Each of the team members slipped out of hiding, and they began what they were sent to do. The cerebrate continued undulating as it sent commands to its minions. It was evidently too focused on directing its forces to notice the loss of its guards. __It'll notice use soon enough. He smiled as he set the psychic disruptor down on the ground. At the same time, the disruptors came on line, severing the cerebrate's connection with its forces._

Its captains, the Overlords, would take some time before sensing the loss, and that time would be enough for them to destroy the cerebrate. The massive thing shuddered and frantically attacking the thin veil that cut it off from its troops. Jean chuckled as he pwered up his psychic weapons. _You are going to die, little insect. He laughed coldly, as the cerebrate began to panic and redouble its effors against the disruptor screen._

He closed his eyes and focused. The team punched through the cerebrate's mind and began searching for its bond to the Overmind, the one thing that made the Zerg cerebrates so difficult to kill. Finding such a connection in the mental swirls was a challenge, but Jean latched onto it within seconds of probing the mind. He sent a call to the others, and their psychic manifestations arrived.

They began to hack and chip away at the powerful bind between the worm and the master worm. The cerebrate's mind began shrieking as the bond that sustained its power was rapidly chewed away at. _Quiet you worthless scum! Jean raged at the cowardice of the cerebrate. He gathered more and more of his psychic powers and blasted it all at once at the bond. The remaining protection around the psychic bond cracked and splintered, revealing a soft mental light. As soon as it appeared, one of his teammates struck at it with amazing force and sliced it clean off from the cerebrate's mind._

The mental scream was horrible, but to the ears of the psychic commandos it was the glorious song of victory. They quickly went back to their physical selves, and quickly deactivated the disruptors. The cerebrates wild screams and impulses swept across the world, warping the minds of its minions, and as he was to find later, the mind of the last cerebrate on the planet. Its hordes of zerglings, hydralisks and other animals were driven insane, effectively negating what ever fighting capability they had.

Jean chuckled as he stepped away from the wildly pulsing and shaking creature. As the others finished planting their high explosives on the creature, Jean pulled out another object. He stuck into the ground a solid piece of carbon crystal. The deed done, he and his small group pulled away again, running from the time bombs, they'd planted on the contorted mass that was the cerebrate. _Another day, another dead piece of slime plastered against the planet._

Three minutes later, six mini-nuclear weapons exploded, wiping out the core of the Zerg base. Leaving only bits and pieces for the scavengers to pick at. But the Velius forces in the vicinity had already moved on to support the assault on the last Hive cluster. The war was still beginning.

At the edges of the Helonis star system, a lone ship watched the Terran victories against the Zerg forces. Two shadowy figures spoke softly to each other. "The Velius Terrans are doing very well against the Zerg." The second shadow, slightly shorter than the first shook his head. "That may be Judaris, but the Zerg are still gathering their forces. This systems was not fully prepared for the attack." Jadaris countered his companion's statement. "And since when did the Zerg have had the need of much time to prepare?" The tall one shook his head. "It appears that _these Terrans have studied the war long enough to know much of their foes. And their technology is quite remarkable for Terrans."_

The shadowy figure was silent for a short while before responding. "Maybe you are right Judaris. I have always been the voice of worry. It is mostly my pessimistic side speaking out." Judaris nodded. "In any case, we need to report back our information, Æxius." Æxius nodded and ordered a templar behind them to send a message probe back to Shakuras.

The dark templar looked back to see the Terrans finishing off the last cerebrate on Helonis Prime. "Our only problem now is how they will react to _us." Judaris' eyes glowed as he thought. "Indeed, dark templar, indeed."_


	3. The Renaissance: In the Shadows

**__**

The Renaissance: In the Shadows

Five months since the Fleet has left Galladium. According to a new calendar being implemented in the Velius Protectorate and under consideration, it is June 13, 1 A.G. or Anno Galladium. The significance of the war is great, since this is the first time the Veliusans have made contact with the coreward worlds. As of now the Admiral is seeing to the aftermath of the Helonis campaign, and testing the Veliusans' new weapons of warfare.

Marcus shook his head and tossed the datapad onto his desk. The report on their Helonis campaign told him that the amount of losses they had suffered was significantly below Intelligence's most pessimistic predictions. One would think that the Admiral was pleased with the results. _Something is wrong here. These reports are true, but the news seems too…favorable for us._ He mumbled and covered his face with his hands, his elbows resting on the table top.

"Admiral, are you feeling ill, Sir?" Justin, Alric's son, and his godson, asked him. He put his hands down and pushed himself from the table to stand up. He shook his head. "I'm feeling fine Captain. It is just that there is something wrong with all this." Justin frowned a little, glancing at the glowing screen of the datapad. His eyes scanned the report again, having seen his own copy of it. He frowned deeper as he finished.

"Captain, its not the report. The news is welcome but I feel there is _something_ not right here." He raised his hand to tap his head. "Those cerebrates are not stupid. They were there for only a short span of time, save for the last one. Only the last one we destroyed was there since the Zerg conquered the system." He exhaled deeply. He walked to his window and sighed, gazing at the majestic array of stars. "Hard to believe that there is so much life, so much death out there. What do you think Justin?

The captain relaxed as he became the man Marcus treated as a nephew. Like a son sometimes, that he never was able to have. "Uncle Marcus, I believe so that there is that out there. And I know it to be so too." He stepped up to stand beside his mentor. "And that life is what we are fighting for, Uncle Marcus. This—" he gestured at the splendorous scenery of heavenly bodies, "—is what we all are fighting for. That the young may gaze and stare in awe at the wonders of the universe, at the marvelous grandeur of life, and enjoy it as we are now"

__

Indeed my young man. You are idealistic as Alric ever was. A small smile touched his lips, and once again Marcus Brightonn felt his eyes sparkle with determination. He breathed in deeply and placed back his admiral's cap on his head. Justin followed suit, and immediately it was all back to business. "Captain, since we have dealt with all the other issues, have you anything left to report?"

Justin's face brightened a bit as he walked to retrieve something from the small folder he'd brought. He came back holding a small disk in his hands. When he broke it there was another microchip inside, as like the other he'd opened half a year ago. _Barely six months now? It seems like more than that,_ he thought, as the chip began to initiate itself. He let the tabletop scan his retina and handprints. A projector popped to life. Unlike the other one he'd gotten half a year ago, which was a recording, this one initiated a direct communications link using his cabin's personal transmitter.

Momentarily the communicator number it was dialing answered. The image now showed what seemed to be the inside of a research facility. _What is this?_ A person soon walked into view wearing a laboratory suit. The man pulled off the helmet and put it down on the table beside him. He turned to face the admiral. "Admiral Marcus Brightonn? Greetings, I'm Professor Keele of the Archius Research Facility, Velius Naval Fleet Research." The man was apparently busy when the transmission called him from whatever he was doing.

__

Archius research facility? I've not heard of that_ one before. _Keele walked over to the desk where his own projector was located and reached down to touch his control panel. The professor pressed something. "I'm uploading a file to you Admiral, it contains data on how to activate the weapon systems, stealth cloaking device and support apparatus on the new Shadowblade stealth interceptors that I assume Fleet Transport has shipped over to you." Marcus glanced at Captain Justin, who gave a nod, and face back to the screen. "We have the consignment of fighters Professor. Is there anything else?"

Keele wiped the sweat off his face with a handkerchief and nodded. "Inside the files being sent to you are instructions for how the presumed shipment of equipment for your fleet's psychic commandos and infiltrators are to work. The details of a few other experimental weapons we are testing right now are also in there." He looked intently at the Admiral. "Admiral Marcus, if the results of these tests prove to be successful…" he smiled, "…your war against the Zerg will be much more easier. Just take a look at the equipment we have and send back if you approve. My team needs more support from Navy officers for the plan to push through."

Marcus lightly nodded, his face showing nothing for the man to see. Keele backed away from the screen and the transmission was cut off. "Interesting is it not, Captain?" Marcus asked his second. "I suppose so Admiral, although I believe that this Professor may be a little…exaggerated about the effectiveness of his projects," Justin replied. Marcus shrugged as the last of the professor's file were saved to his desk. He turned on the player of the central floor to access the documents. "Let us take a look at this then, shall we?"

Nick closed the black interceptor's cockpit. Sitting down, he took a long look to get the feel of the controls of the Shadowblade stealth fighter. _It's a bit narrower than the Blackwing, bit slightly more elongated._ He'd run over the description of the craft and read some bits of information on its capabilities. Unlike the Blackwing, the Shadowblade could be cloaked for a near limitless amount of time, as long as its main engine core was able to stay online. _Being able to stay hidden as long I want is going to be _very_ useful. _

The other difference with the cloaking capability of the Shadowblade was, unlike the Blackwing, it made light flow over it. When moving, not even its blur could be seen. The only downside to it was that it would be harder to coordinate massive strikes, since the targeting systems had difficulty identifying its own ships. _But this thing would be wonderful for covert ops!_ He smiled as he imagined what he could do with the stealth capability the craft had. He pressed the power core activation button. The light shudder as the core warmed and began powering-up greeted him satisfactorily.

"Commander Voredan, are you ready to begin the field test?" The voice blared from the small communicator speaker. His ears a bit annoyed by the loudness of the voice, he turned down the volume before replying. "This is Commander Voredan, am powering up my engine drives now, consider me ready to begin." After a moment a screen flashed and a set of coordinates appeared. He tapped the craft's throttle and found that its engines responded almost immediately . _Not bad. For a new ship, its cold start is pretty fast._

He grasped the stick as pushed it slightly forward. It pitched down rapidly slamming him against the inside of the cockpit. _Yikes! That was fast!_ He rubbed his helmet, and tuned down the sensitivity a few notches. He pulled back just a fraction on the stick, as this time the spacecraft pulled back up somewhat slower than a moment ago. _Here we go._ He pushed the accelerator and the Shadowblade jerked forward. He managed to get the oversensitive, overreactive craft out the hangar bay before he accidentally hit something.

As the sleek combat fighter rocketed out off the hangar bays, Nick could feel the force, even when dampened by the inertial fields. He looked for the navigation points set out for him and quickly skimmed to each one in record time, getting the feel of piloting the craft already. _This baby is nice! Its maneuverability and speed is a whole generation above the Blackwing fighter's!_ He chuckled as he closed the distance between him and the last navigation buoy. In seconds, he closed the last few kilometers.

"Now commander, we have set up a small course for you. It will be a long run, full of mines and sentry turrets. We have thrown in a few fighter drones for you to mix it up with as well. Proceed." The run was not as hard as he'd though it would be. With the ability of the Shadowblade to stop and turn on a dime, he had it relatively easy for him. It was only when the turrets and drones were firing that he had to pay extra attention to the tracking mines. He made it out with a few shratches according to his computer's training calculator. But still, all in all, he'd done well enough.

He was lucky enough to be transferred to the Expeditionary Fleet's command vessel. And now he was lucky enough to have been selected to fly the new Shadowblade stealth interceptor. _Life is wonderful._ He smiled. The controller's voce interrupted his reverie. "Commander Voredan, your flight capabilities seem to be within projected specifics. Now we are going to test the craft's combat capabilities." A set of lights came out of the battlecruiser's main hangar bay. The control officer spoke. "Your weapons are currently set to training mode, and will do no damage to your enemies. Your cannons will merely paint them. You have been allowed to use your stealth capabilities. Good luck, Commander."

He checked his board and found four red dots heading for him. The identity signal told him that he was facing one of the capital ship's squadrons. _They're not their best pilots though._ He saw that the four pilots facing him were numbers, not the call sign codes of the elite squadrons, making them "merely" skilled pilots. _Merely skilled! Hah!_ He snorted. He armed his weapons and readied his cloaking field for the battle. He smiled._ Ready to finish this session in a blaze of simulated glory!._ He pushed the throttle up and rocketed towards his foes, who split into two pairs.

The distance dropped in hundreds of meters per second. The rapid rate of closure made him frown. _Head on is dangerous, but what do I have to loose?_ He felt the afterburner button and fingered it. _Should I?_ He shrugged._ What the heck._ He pushed it and the already brisk moving ship shot off with breakneck velocity.He released the toggle immediately and decided that he wouldn't be using _that_ for any dogfights. The sensor screen shifted from long range to combat scanning, and it told him that the four black painted ships were trying for a lock. _I'm not just a target, I can fly!_ He pulled on the stick and _weaved_, still managing to head at them. As he got into range for guns he punched the cloaking shield on.

It seemed as if his fighter just vanished from existing, and a black spot from space began to spit laser bolts. As it was, his cloaking shook up the pair he was barreling at, and he managed to his one with a particle cannon hit, shorting it out for a few moments. He glanced at his scanners and saw the wing vector in to track his tail. The unparalyzed one was twisting this way and that, attempting to avoid the spray of energy bolts he was firing at it. With the superior flying capabilities his ship had, he had little problem pursuing and attacking the fighter down. As it twisted even more desperately, he shifted his targeting crosshairs to compensate. Sets of laser beams spat at it, and its shields began to weaken and give way.

__

This is too easy! He snorted disgusted at the cheapness it. He was hardly fighting than just shooting targets down. He looked at his sensor board and found that the other two had broken form. _Retreating?_ He shook off the thought and pursued his target, shooting it down in a few more moments. He checked his board._ Now for the last two…_ Suddenly, a crossfire of laser came from above and below him, the bolts making a "X", which center happened to be him. The fusillade shook his ship and he lost his shields. _Damn!_ He pushed forward and as he did, the remaining bolts knocked his cloaking off-center. He erratically phased in and out, his image showing and disappearing.

He pulled the craft around in a roll and saw his foes. He tried sniping at one of them, a few shots flying through space, but none hit. His forward propulsion drives gave out and he was left with his maneuvering thrusters. _Useless in this situation._ The pair formed up and descended on him. The two could see by now the derelict floating interceptor, and approached it, eager to finish it off. He sighed as the last bolt "broke" his hull into pieces. At that, his craft unlocked and the cloaking field snapped back online. He flicked it off and flew over in the direction of the command ship.

"A dream isn't it?" Nick head whipped around to see who was speaking to him. A middle aged man was caressing the Shadowblade's hull with his hand, running it across the ship's glossy black armor mould. "That it is. It's a whole step up from the Blackwings." Nick smiled. "The Blackwings won't hold a light to this baby, not when it gets under production." The man looked at Nick and held out his hand. "Nice shooting out there, even if it was just at a bunch of dead ducks." Nick chuckled and took the other's hand into his. "I wouldn't say that you were dead ducks out there. You did manage to shoot me down."

The pilot released Nick's hand. "Being invisible to the eye, sensors and even infra-red scans? No, even the best pilots can't hit what they can't see or detect. It took me and Jag long enough to finally come up with the idea to try track the space in front of the your drive's thrust trail emissions." _Jag, as in Jaguar?_ Nick shook his head, the name seemingly familiar. "But that fact is you _did_ take a cloaked fighter down without the assistance of more extensive detection equipment."

"Yes, I guess that's right." The man laughed and shook his head. "I bet Tike and Flare are pretty pissed of at you though, hitting them head on!" He grinned. _Tike?_ At the last name he realized whom he was speaking to, confirmed by a glance to the man's helmet, tucked between his arm and waist. Of all the squadrons in the fleet, only a select few, the elite squadrons, were allowed non-numeric call signs and identity codes. _And this one I'm speaking to is…_ "Kell Crisol? Commandant Crisol of the 9th Elite Guards?"

The dark-haired man smiled. "That was, I mean, is me. Wondering how someone like you could take the infamous Kell Crisol, the undefeatable 'Joshua', out?" He pulled his arm around Nick's shoulder and shook him. "I don't know either how you pulled that off, but let's talk over a drink shall we?" Duron chuckled again as he pulled away a stuttering Nick from the silhouette of the Shadowblade. "Although, you never _really_ did take _me_ out you know."

"The second field test checks out perfectly, Sir. It has performed quite admirably." Justin reported. Admiral Marcus nodded. "I can see that Captain. Is there still need for more testing, more trials?" Justin checked his list and nodded, causing the Admiral to sigh. _Another delay. If only we could send our weapons sure of their functionality._ "What is it then Captain?" The captain glanced down, and scanned the line. "There is one last test, Sir. We need to test the Shadowblade's capability under combat as a group, or at the very least as a wing." The admiral nodded. "Tomorrow then, for now let's ease off the schedule. In a few days the men will not be getting much rest of any kind."

__

Four zerglings to the left, a pair of hydralisks behind this tank, and an ultralisk guard on the depot. Jean checked his infra-sensors. He shook his head. _Another day in the life of Team Stella._ Using hand signals he communicated to his men. Castor and Kirkland broke from the side and approached the zerglings, cloaked. He signaled again, pointing and the other two of his team, Victor and Jamis, left. He counted to twenty and took a one-two peek from behind his cover. All the others were in position, Castor and Kirkland on the zerglings, and Jamis and Victor ready to take out the ultralisk.

__

Matt, are you ready? His psychic communicator blinked as his thoughts were transmitted to his partner. _Locked and loaded, Sir._ He nodded. Jean exhaled silently and counted to ten. On ten he sent a psychic command to his team and they snapped into action. At the same time as Jean and Matt rolled out and aimed at the hydralisks' heads, Castor and Kirkland opened up on the zerglings. A pair of shots from Jamis and Victor lanced out to strike the ultralisk. The zerg force quickly acted, but not before he and Matt had their sights targeted at the moving hydralisks' heads.

Jean pulled back on his rifle's trigger and felt the magnetic chambers launch an explosive metal round at his hydra's head. It screamed as it turned, a bad move as his shot now punctured one of its eyes, and the round blew up half the hydra's head off before it even exploded. Matt's shot hit the other's central torso, lancing its' spinal column, and it writhed on the ground unable to move. A spray of soil from the ground revealed another pair of hydralisks and four more zerglings.

The ultralisk roared and its unseen attacked continued to spike its' legs with armor piercing rounds. In the sky, an overlord headed for the small depot, slowly giving the newly unburrowed creatures a sense of where its foes were. _Damn, I thought this was out of their psychic sensory range. Seems I was wrong._ Jean and Matt took out the hydralisks with ease before the overlord arrived. Castor and Kirkland fended off the rush of zerglings with their pinpoint accuracy, no more than one or two shots a piece for each zergling. _They must have been spending _their_ free time improving their gunnery skills._ As the overlord neared the depot, the lone ultralisk, finding its attackers too late, fell to the ground, bleeding profusely with its limbs ripped to shreds. The last zergling was killed in a shot by Castor, and immediately after, he and his partner began shooting at the hovering overlord.

__

What is it doing? It can't… He realized then. A ventral sac opened and a dozen zerglings dropped from it onto the central battlefield near Jamis and Victor. With lightning speed the two commandos each opened up on the falling creatures, hitting two as they fell. Matt scurried to Jean's side as they moved to cover their teammates. A low sound and a light vibration shook the ground as an ultralisk jumped from the overlord. The flying zerg then pulled out as the hail of shells from Castor and Kirkland took their toll on it.

Seeing the ultralisk drop, Kirkland and Castor shifted fire, scoring a few hits on its legs and torso before it landed. Jean slid to as stop as he and Matt found a position to defend and shoot from. _Jamis, Victor, fall back to my location immediately!_ He sent to the pair. A moment later, they abandoned their position and began walking quickly backwards towards a higher site. The crossfire of the commando team's high-velocity rail guns whittled the dozen and one zerg to five zerglings and a slightly wounded ultralisk. The zerglings bolted from Jamis' and Vitcor's previous position and began skipping side to side, avoiding their fire more effectively now that they weren't climbing a steep, narrow incline.

__

DAMN! Jean cursed and spat as the four zerglings jumped onto Jamis and ripped him to shreds. Victor managed to get one more shot off at the small pack before he too was jumped and ripped apart. Jean reloaded and continued firing, taking down two zerglings in one shot, and another in a second later. The ultralisk roar called his attention back, and he saw it throw the body of Kirkland away. Castor was nowhere to be seen. The last zergling was downed by Matt, and his partner shifted his aim to the charging ten-ton beast.

It closed the short distance between it to him and Matt at alarming pace. He just managed to finish reloading and brought his gun up when it vaulted up an obstacle to attack them. Jean succeeded in jumping aside and getting a wild shot at the massive creature before it grabbed the shouting Matt up. Matt kept shooting with his pistol, his rifle broken by the ultralisk's grip until the deadly behemoth crushed the life out of his comrade, Matt's blood dripping over its claws. _Damn it!_

He brought his rifle up and zoomed at the ultralisk's head, targeting its eye. He fired, and the silver bullet smacked its' head. The great hook-like blades swept him up as he cocked his rifle. _I'm taking you with me!_ He pulled out a grenade as he felt his ribs crack, then fracture into pieces. "Good bye, little bug." A light enveloped the area and an explosion devastated the terrain around, the fiery concussion taking the accursed hovering overlord, the supply depot, the ultralisk, and Jean with it. A small green dot blinked and the impenetrable darkness became words.

__

Training sequence over.

As the vision pad was withdrawn from his eyes, Jean blinked, his eyes adjusting to the light of the training room. He shook his head and was helped up by Matt. To the side Victor and Jamis were locking down the opened simulation pods, while Castor checked the simulation scorings. Kirkland was walking out off the simulation room, bumping into a few other training personnel on the way out. All in all it wasn't too bad.

Considering that they weren't using their psychic abilities in that battle, it was pretty good. _If we _had _been able to use our talents, we could have sent that overlord to a mental hospital even before it arrived with those reinforcements._ Despite that, they had taken out a total of twenty zerglings, four hydralisks and two ultralisks, quite a kill ratiom though they _did_ lose the team. The floating blob unfortunately didn't count as a score. Castor walked over a smile on his face holding the report. He slung his arm around Matt as he read it. "Castor Donn, five zergling kills. Not so bad eh?"

Matt pulled the print out from Castor's hand. "Matt Donahue, two hydralisk kills, one zergling kill." He shrugged. "Seems I even out with you Victor." Wiping his face with a towel, Jean glanced at the paper seeing his own score. _Two hydralisks, three zeglings and an ultralisk score._ Jean tugged the sheet and reread it. He looked at Castor. The black-haired man raised his hands in defeat. "Okay, fine, I can't beat the boss in training sessions. But so what? My scores on the dark boards _are_ the highest right now."

The board was a record of each commando's kills. Similar to the scoreboard that the pilots had in their own lounge, the rankings of each commando's kill score was a matter of pride. So far, his team was second in number of kills, successful missions, and third in number of killed cerebrates, which was two. Individually, Castor was ranked first in kills, followed by Richland of another Shade team, then him. The highest demolition score was by Kirkland, their demolitionist, with a score of having used enough explosives equivalent to a pair of nuclear warheads.

His team was among the elite of the psychic commandos, the Shades. Only Shade teams had the ability to both do extensive covert ops, and psychic ops. Not many were qualified for that type of class. He was proud of that. It was why they were so good. Matt and Castor were still speaking to each other as he picked up his belt bag and walked off to gunnery practice. _Those things won't last a second longer than this time._

Two days later Nick and Crisol were flying their Shadowblades out off the hangar bay of the _Vitality_. This was the last Shadowblade field test, and they were going to fight together against others in waves, a series of combat craft. It started with out a hitch, the two quickly familiarizing themselves with the other's flying styles and techniques. With their vastly superior ships, their skills, and the Shadowblade's incredible cloaking ability, it was not difficult. They fought against their foes with deadly efficiency, dispatching the pairs, then quartets of fighters in seconds of engaging them.

They faced the White Knights and the Horatio Guard. Their last opponent was Kell's squadron. Because of Jaguar, Flare and Tike's previous encounter with the ships, the fight took longer, stretching into a full two or three minutes of pitched dogfight as they kept attempting to catch either one in a crossfire. One by one the 9th Elite fell, leaving the two commanders victorious with nothing more than barely touched shields.

Nick groaned, his body exhausted from the more than an hour-long exercise. Beside him Kell's interceptor floated. Even uncloaked the Shadowblade was hard to spot, its' dark hull color easily blending with the darkness of space. Its surface even reflected and fractured the starlight, being resistant to laser light. "Feeling tired, Commander?" Kell's voice crackled through the comm. "Quite so I believe, how can you not after facing a full six squadrons one after another?"

"Commandant Crisol, I am have been completely wrung dry of any energy I have left." He chuckled. "There's nothing else on the list for us to do right?" Kell was silent for a moment before affirming that. Nick heaved a sigh of relief. His hands were tired from the dodging, twisting, firing, oh it was fun, but it was just too exhausting. "Hey Nick, I got a surprise for you." Nick replied, "Oh, what is it?" If Nick could have seen his companion's face he'd have seen a grin plastered on Kell's visage. "I got permission from the Admiral to let us take these things out for a ride. If you want that is."

Nick straightened up. "If I want? You're kidding! Of course I want to, let's get moving then!" Kell's laughter filled the airwaves. "Okay then, point your ship at coordinates 85.23.2.16. That's the location of the nearest moon." He paused, then yelled, "Race you there!" Nick barely got his ship pointed at the direction of the coordinates when Kell's afterburner flares ignited. "Hey, no fair!" His friend chuckled. "All's fair in love and war. And I consider this a kind of war." Kell's voice waved as his ship catapulted forward. Nick pushed up his throttle as well, but let his ship reach its top non-afterburner speed before pressing the little red button.

Marcus watched the two craft as they rocketed towards the primary moon of Kalaina V, the outermost planet of the Kalaina star system. The Kalaina system was an unoccupied solar system with moderate resources. Its position was well-hidden and relatively difficult to reach. It was soon going to be Admiral Marcus' future Fleet headquarters. _Lucky of us to stumble on this place._ He smiled. Kalaina was the first system that a viable base could be set up on. Soon the transport task force with the construction units would arrive, and he would soon be able to reinforce his men with more spacecraft, tanks and other form of equipment from here.

__

This forward base will be very helpful to us. The vastly reduced transit time would be of great relief to his sub-commanders, as they held the triangle of Helonis, Richter, and Samme. From here the Expeditionary Fleet could truly begin their war against the Zerg, and begin their return to the coreward worlds. With the colonization of Kalaina and securing it, he could then call forward the remainder of his fleet forward, and request more forces from Fleet Command.

But for now, he'd have to make do with the supply runs Fleet Transport was making. _Once they arrive it'll be just a few more days then the main infrastructure of the base would be set up._ He turned from the view and went back to his desk. _Back to work._

"Quite a rush, eh?" Kell chuckled. "Oh, yes." Nick replied. _This is nuts man. Life is great! First I get transferred to the _Vitality_, then pilot the Navy's prototype interceptor, _and_ I somehow manage to be on friendly terms with _theJoshua. He chuckled. "Hey, Nick, didn't you hear me?" Nick was pulled out of his reverie and responded. "I'm here, what is it?" Kell sighed. "Take a glance at that spot past the moon. Looks kind of weird doesn't it?"

Nick looked at it then magnified it. The small spot of space there was slightly…wobbly. That was the only word he could think of. It looked as it the space there was actually warping in on itself, as it if it was trying to stomach something in. _Warping in on itself?_ He realized at the same moment Kell did. "Shit, that's a warpgate!" They quickly turned on their weapons and shields as they began to pull away from the warpgate. Their systems just came online when a heat signals from the now-shiny spot were spat out. He punched his cloaking fields on as they withdrew from the immediate vicinity to watch.

"Nick, are you believing this?" The voice of Kell came through, slightly hushed. Neither had ever seen a Zerg warp before. "I'm recording this. The guys back at Intelligence and Research will kill for a copy of this." Nick flicked on his ship's external cameras and soon they just sat there as each of their ships began to archive the scene before them.

The sight unfolding just before them was as horrifying as it was awesome. Hundreds of zerg came out from the gateway. Mutalisks, guardians and the occasional devourer came forth to secure the area. His short-range heat scanners were a bright, glaring color of bloody red. On the secure communication channel to his current partner, Nick murmered softly. "Damn, look at that. Now _this_ is a real zerg brood! The ones we've been hitting so far were just probably newly created colonies with barely enough forces to be classified as such!." Over the channel there was silence. Nick shook his head.

"Nick, we need to get out now. If this _is_ a real Zerg force, then overlords and the rest will be coming out soon. Those overlords will likely still be able to locate us despite our cloaking." Nick thought it over then acquiesced with Kell's statement. "Yeah, you're right. Let's leave. We have more than enough to give Intel and Research to choke on." As if by magic, moments after the two Shadowblades began moving, a group of overlords and queens burst from the gateway. The overlords twitched, and soon the whole horde of mutalisks and devourers vectoring towards the pair.

"Damn! We should've left earlier Nick!" Kell abandoned his secure channel and shouted over the open comm. Both hit their maximum throttle and began dodging the massive rain of fire at them. Over a thousand Zerg were chasing them down, with more remaining to stay with the hovering overlords. The maelstrom of Zerg blocked them from making their way out easily, and it took them many agonizing moments before Nick found them a small opening. "Hit afterburners!" Heeding his companion's shout, Kell pushed down his afterburner button. Both ships almost tripled in speed, shortly outrunning their pursuers.

__

Shit, that was close! He fully realized how close it was when he checked his status board. His shields were out for the count, and from the reports from his Shadowblade's equipment his hull armor was down to 18% before the Zerg hits would have began hitting internal structure and probably have began to compromise hull state before his air would have begun rushing into space. "God that was close. Way too close." He checked the rest of his fighter's subsystems and found them in good enough condition to survive the trip home. "Kell, you alright there?"

"I'm shook up pretty bad Nick. My hull armor's been breached near my fuel tanks. I have barely enough to make it back to the _Vitality_. Maybe." He shook his head. _We've got a lot of trouble ahead of us._ The two black ships sped through space, and each man within was reminded of the gravity of the war. They had never truly faced the actual power of Zerg numeric superiority under the command of a well-prepared and experienced Zerg cerebrate. The pair made it back to the _Vitality_ with their startling report. 

Admiral Marcus Brightonn was curiously _not_ surprised. His reaction to the Zerg incursion was strange, as if he had expected something like it. Regardless of which, the fleet managed to destroy a significant part of the Zerg forces there before being forced to retreat. Under his uncanny leadership the fleet suffered no capital ship losses and relatively few small craft casualties. It was then he decided to commit the bulk of his Fleet to the war front. Days after the initial Zerg attack on the _Vitality_ task force, the 59th Star Fleet and the newly brought forth 90th Jonodan Fleet, began their seige of the Zerg planets of Kalaina.

It would be some months before the admiral had his desired bastion back.


	4. The Renaissance: Seige of Kalaina

**Seige of Kalaina**

Over Kalaina VI, the _Panacea_ orbited. All around it, numerous battlecruisers and carriers laid waste to the Zerg bases below. From orbit, the great ships let loose their bombardment cannons, huge laser batteries. Streams of energy struck the battered Zerg base on the planet, liquidating patches of Creep and the occasional Zerg structural masses. From his command seat, Admiral Marcus Brightonn watched the destruction. His screens glowed bright with information and images of the Zerg Hive cluster. The stealth drones deployed had suffered no losses as yet, inorganic and small, they were undetectable by any Zerg life form thus encountered. But though his fleet could destroy the whole planet easily with their more devastating weapons, he wanted the planet captured and its resources put to their use. To his side, Commander Denoshin monitored his own set of screens, awaiting orders from his superior.

Marcus looked over the screens again and decided.

He spoke to Justin. "Tell the fleet that they are go for invasion. Cease orbital bombardment in thirty seconds after the Trentinos and Mediterraneans launch. And release the Blackwing squadrons for their planetary runs." The commander nodded and quickly went to work. In moments the fleet began to reposition, and moments after that, the dropships descended from the fleet to land their troops on-planet. "Any resistance yet?" Marcus asked, his eyes seeing the small glows of the dropships as they entered the atmosphere. Justin shook his head negatively. "Only token resistance, Sir. They haven't sent anything else after we destroyed the swarm of Mutalisks and Devourers they threw at us. Marcus nodded his head.

The sounds of sonic booms barely reached Jean's ears within the great dropship's bays. His team was all psyched up, in more ways than one, for the coming battle. Again, their mission was to pinpoint the center of the Hive Cluster for the tactical nukes to his, and kill any Zerg cerebrates. AS of late, they had been encountering much less cerebrates than they had. A thriving Zerg cluster no longer always had a cerebrate running it. It was just as well, since cerebrate directed clusters were more formidable than otherwise. He rubbed the rag in his hand over the barrel of his RailTech rifle. The rumbling stopped, telling Jean that they were through the atmosphere. The assault on Kalaina VI had begun, and it would not stop until the Velius forces had control of the planet.

The alarm claxons blared out loud in the cavernous bays of the dropship, a computerized voice counting down the time to drop-off. Unlike most of the past drops, this would be their first time to be involved in a hot drop, meaning a drop directly onto the frontlines of the battle. In this case, onto the would-be frontlines of the coming battle. The Trentino shuddered as the Zerg finally retaliated. The faint shrieks of Mutalisks and Scourges attempting to bring down the massive 400-meter crafts. Behind them, the even more massive assault dropships, the Mediterranean-class dropships of approximately 650-meters, awaited the smaller craft to stabilize a beachhead on the planet with their shock troops.

The heavy turrets of the Trentino slowly began to reply, and the heavy lasers began to spit out terra-joules of energy. Particle cannons, the siege weapons of the Tretinos powered up and blasted clusters of massed Zerg forces on the ground. Azure bolts of pure lightning coursed through the bodies of hundreds of Zerg life forms, shaving away the numerical superiority of their enemies. Outside, Jean could hear the sonic booms of passing Blackwing fighters, the backbone of the Velius Navy's starfighter fleet. In his mind he could visualize the streams of laser blasts melting hardened carapace, and salvos of plasma-armed missiles dealing death to the insects. With a shudder, the Trentino landed heavily on the ground. The cargo bay doors opened up quickly, showing lines of Zerg rushing towards a target within their reach. From within the Trentino, the first line of battletitans, or Titans, replied with a torrent of heavy machinegun and autocannon fire. They fanned out in a curve around the mouth of the Trentino's exit. Behind them the heavy Dragon-class tanks rolled out, laying down a punishing hail of fire, even more deadly than that of the Titans'.

The landing was often practiced, and it was carried out with precision efficiency. Like clockwork, the ground troops of the Velius Army, its marines and assault troopers, deployed to defend their ship. The cracks of a thousand new assault rifles and dozens of heavy guns let loose their destructive power on the Zerg. Cracked shells and organic matter fell to the ground, scorched and ripped to shreds. The howls of hundreds of zerglings and hydralisks arose again, as the main body of the zerg host rushed onwards to meet the Velius Terrans. A line of fire was laid down so thick that even those numbers of Zerg couldn't get close enough to use their numbers and melee abilities. The few who did were quickly taken down by supporting Shades, armed with their sniper rifles. The long-range sniper gun lanced out into the Zerg horde, the single kills not doing much to affect the tides of battle. 

In the distance, large shadows appeared. The silhouettes of the behemoth Ultralisks came into view, the beasts charging at the Terran line. The thick armored carapaces of the ultralisks gave them enough time to close the distance of no-man's land between the Zerg and the Terran lines. The Terrans learned fast to though, and as the ultralisks neared the lines to strike, a new Terran unit stepped out to confront the behemoth. Standing 3 meters tall, the power-armor of the Velius infantry was equipped with both melee and ranged weapons. It was designed most importantly to stop the Zerg ultralisks, who were extremely devastating thus far. The ultralisk brandished its blades and struck at the power-armor, known more commonly as CybeRs, since it utilized neuro-cybernetic technology extensively. The CybeR stumbled backwards, barely able to keep in balance. As it backpedaled to keep upright, it revealed two long energy blades, of approximately 40 inches each. Based on the idea of the Protoss Zealots, the CybeR used Terran technology to emulate the Zealot's psi blades.

The CybeR's reply to the ultralisk's initial attack was equally effective, the fusion blades ripping a gash in the ultralisk carapace and sending it back a few steps. Cover fire from nearby marines and heavy troopers finished the giant off. The shield-troopers, trained to advance under heavy fire from enemy units, deployed. These infantry units carried light weapons, but had a heavy shield-projector. Once they neared the enemy lines, they deployed these screens, enabling hem to fire with near-impunity and let other units of more offensive power close. The few months of battle against the Zerg had let the scientific-military community have a vast field in which to play with. Hundreds of ideas were proposed, and the Velius forces had a plethora of new weapons in which to use against their foes.

Jean boarded his APC with his teammates. The new APC was now equipped with a special stealth-device. Its effectiveness in hiding against the Zerg would be tested now. Regardless of which, the Shade team didn't count on it working and had planned for them to get to the Zerg hive center with or without the stealth generator. To Jean's surprise, their driver and co-driver just happened to be the same who had dropped them off on the previous attack in which they had killed a minor cerebrate. He shrugged and took his seat. The hatched closed as the last of his teammates entered and took his seat. Jean closed his eyes and mentally hummed songs in his mind, attempting to soothe it against the thunderous voices of the Mjölnir artillery walkers and the heavy cannons of the Dragon tanks.

In the skies above Jean's APC, which was now speeding ahead trying to skirt the swells of the battle, the Blackwings of the White Knights twisted and turned. Here and there, the Blackwings blasted apart Zerg Mutalisks, who were no match for the fighters. Their agility and speeds were far beyond the Mutalisks, and their shields deflected any spore that managed to get near. It was with no little amount of skill that the Knights were able to use those advantages to the limits. "White One, you've got three on your tail!" The voice of Nick's wingman called out. Without any pause, he pulled back on his stick. His starfighter immediately pulled upwards, dancing to his touch. At a dizzying pace, he performed a series of loops, rolls and tight turns, trying to lose the trailing Mutalisks. A pair of red flares streaked at the Mutalisks following him. One missile missed its target, but the other caught its Mutalisk dead on. The carapace cracked, enabling the explosion to tear the creature in half.

"Thanks, White Two." He breathed into his comm. The pair behind him paused in their pursuit, letting him turn around to meet them head on when they continued onwards to follow him. A cascade of crimson laser bolts greeted his pursuers, who replied with a barrage of glaive wurms. The acid-coated projectiles splattered against his shields, who had not been touched since the dogfighting began. His lasers tore through the wings of one, while bloodying the other. Another torrent of laser fire brought the bloody one down, while his wingman took the disabled Mutalisk out. Nick glanced at the sensor screen below his cockpit's view screen. The dots of red signifying the Zerg units were plentiful, despite the efforts of his command and the craft of other Navy squadrons. The green dots representing Navy units were still numerous to an extent, and capable of holding off the Zerg threats from attacking their ground comrades.

Even now, a wing of Novastar bombers slowly descended beneath their fighter screens to assist in the ground battle, where the fate of the battle for Kalaina VI would depend on. He turned his attention back to the air battle. The toll on the Navy starfighters would eventually be to high to bear, he noted. "Watch your rear!" An unfamiliar voice called out to him through the comm gear. He was startled and immediately rolled his craft and dove. The call cam just in time as a quartet of glaive wurms streaked through where he would have been if he'd stayed on his course a moment longer. "Thanks." He breathed into the transmitter. The numbers of the Zerg were wearing him down. He pulled back up into the fray, lasers gunning with no reserve at bunches of Mutalisks.

Just as Nick reentered the fight, the Velius Navy's own version of the Terran Valkyrie came into range. Christened the Angel line of light frigates, the 65 meter long ships let loose with their arrays of infra-red guided missiles and multiple anti-fighter laser batteries. From each of the twelve craft that came down to support them, forty-eight missiles launched and over a dozen dual-barrel laser turrets spat out beams of pure power.

Jean slid to a half behind a slab of rock, the moist slime of the creep beneath him. His Chameleon combat suit was hard pressed to maintain the coloring of the Creep, uneven and of a vast multitude of reds and purples. His cloaking field stayed on as well, just in case. Using the scope on his sniper rifle, he saw the center of the Hive cluster. In the center of the Zerg colony-base, worker drones tended the Creep and the structures that fed on it. Here the Zerg extracted the nutrients and provisions it needed to grow its armies. Jean motioned his hand, visible to his comrades in their Shade-gear.

Their moved forward, quickly but stealthily. Meter by meter the edged forward. With his eyes Jean could barely see the groups of Zerg morphing from larvae, encased within hard shells. How they could grow creatures so quickly and so stable, he did not know. _They don't have brains, those things, and that's how they do it._ He mumbled to himself. The APC had been detected, the moment they crossed the Creep. It managed to bring them a short distance closer before Zerg forces began to harry it. It had been a long walk from there. Jean and his team moved closer again, dashing across sparsely covered landscape. _No overlords? No control beings of any kind? We must be lucky._ He peered into the distance around him. They were near the center of the Hives now, with smaller breeding hatcheries around it. _No slugs to fry?_ Castor spoke into his mind. Jean cursed and motioned him to keep the telepathic conversations down.

It was too late though.

Jean felt a psionic disturbance nearby, another entity. He frowned as he scanned the environment. He saw nothing of any note, not even a hovering Overlord coming near. _How peculiar._ He shook his head and signaled again. They closed the distance in this manner, dashing then pausing. By this they covered the ground quickly. The base of the Hive was huge, the carapace of the thing thicker than a Dragon tank's armor. It was his first time to see one up close. With a few more hand motions he set their plan into place. The team spread out to let their demolitionist do his work. By themselves, they also planted their own bombs, planting them in a net around the Hive. It would be Victor's fusion bomb, or the covert-ops version of the yet undeployed Armageddon Sphere, that would be the big explosion.

A grunt behind him shook his nerve. He spun to see a quartet of Zerglings behind him, their claws clenching. The dog-like insects sniffed their air, their aura one of suspiciousness. _Devouring Ones strain._ He grit his teeth in a moment of trepidation. He quickly recomposed himself, knowing that they couldn't take him down now that he saw them. Such was his psionic strength. He tapped a message in code to his teammates, urging Victor to hurry with his bomb setting. A tapping through the short-range laser communicator greeted his message. In words, it was: "Victor here, bomb set, let's pull out." Jean breathed quietly, slowly backing away from the four Zerglings. They moved their heads abruptly, but didn't follow. A few moments later of tenseness, he was in the clear.

The Shade team moved out, the bombs quietly beeping, their synchronized time to detonation in progress. As Jean and his people left the Hive center, in the opposite direction from the battle lines towards the rear of the Zerg base, Jean felt a tingle in his mind. A feeling of amusement and contentment. IT was not one of his own feelings though, but someone else's. He frowned as he attempted to probe the mists of minds nearby. His men had not projected those thoughts, their minds that of seriousness and focus, even Castor's. The ascended the mountains behind the Zerg base, where a flight of Shadowblades waited for them. They reached the stealth crafts without incident, and the bombs detonated seconds after the Shadowblades lifted-off.

As the mushroom cloud of a particularly intense nuclear blast filled his gaze, focused down on the Zerg base, he wondered who had touched his mind so lightly. He knew that few people had the elan of using psionic powers other than the members of his team. Also, he knew the touch of his friend's minds, and the touch was not familiar. He turned his look from the devastation to the sky and the space beyond. His mind pondered the psychic touch. _If not one of his own, then whose was the touch?_ It would be a challenge to find out, he mused.

Æxius gazed up into the darkness of space, his mind filled with the visions of battle. The Terrans of Velius had taken Kalaina VI in mere hours. Within the next few days they had slowly devastated the forces of thousands of Zerg on Kalaina IV and II. The Zerg stronghold on Kalaina Prime and Kalaina VI had been by passed, the Velius Protectorate forces had merely blockaded them, thanks to reinforcements from the other fleets of the Expeditionary Force. They had slowed their advance against Zerg forces, which were few and far between in their areas of advance. 

His Watchers had kept track of the Velius Terrans, and on more than one occasion they had seemed to detect them. He smiled faintly. _There is yet strength in the race of Humanity._ The Protoss would not bear this burden of battle against the Zerg for much longer now, for here was a Terran power of magnificence and culture that may be able to unite the disparate, feuding colonial powers. The Terran Dominion would not be able to stop them from becoming the preeminent Terran power in the Koprulu Sector. His dark templar friend had left him in the meantime, to "seek the true powers of a Terran and unleash his might". 

Indeed.

Æxius chuckled and slept, reaching into space. His mind slept again, and when he woke he found that a week had passed since his slumber. A full two weeks since the Terrans had assaulted the Zerg at Kalaina VI, three since they had fought the initial waves of Zerg when they appeared by the moon of Kalaina Prime. His mind swept the system, and the High Templar learned of the events that came to pass. They were taking Kalaina Prime, the final bastion of Zerg power in this system. He smiled again. His hands stroked the controls of his upgraded Corsair, and it jumped to life. The Protoss ship quickly turned around, heading for the small base he had made at the very edges of the Kalaina system, hidden by the technology of the Arbiters.

_Congratulations, Terrans of Velius._

On the planet Kalaina VI, Jean practiced his sniping. His teammates had left the shooting range long since, satisfied with their practice. Jean wasn't. Not yet. Holographs of Zerglings and Hydralisks approached him from different sides, advancing on his position on the hill. His every shot struck down one of the foul creatures. With practiced precision, he reloaded magazine after magazine when one got depleted. He was in the best Shade team, and the leader of it. He would accept nothing less than excellent performance. 

Curiously, he'd been practicing his psionic abilities as of late as well. Not just practicing to use them, but to push the limits of his powers.


	5. The Renaissance: Consolidation

Consolidation 

The glint of sunlight peeked over the mountains of Kalaina VI. The rays of light shone over the Velius Protectorate military, and colonial, base. Aside from the numerous military personnel there, the newly founded colony had a population of  a few hundred civilians. For the duation of the war, their purpose was to succor their Army and Navy forces with new war machines to be produced from the factories and assembly plants constructed on-planet. Watching over them, a large battle platform of over ten square-kilometers orbited in space around the planet. Using nanotechnology, they had constructed the defenses and manufacturing power of Kalaina VI in mere weeks after it had been secured. The great battle station would provide the security the planet needed, sporting over two hundred missile arrays and even more heavy laser batteries.

Admiral Marcus gazed into the darkness of space, a small goblet of liquor in his hand. Outside, his flagship, the _Panacea, was being repaired. A small attack deeper into Zerg territory had proved succesful, obtaining them another fringe world system to colonize and industrialize for the war. The previous systems, Helonis and the rest, all in all about twenty planetary systems, were already readied as was Kalaina VI, or more so. The hundreds of factories and shipyards would be churning out hundreds of craft and war machines day by day. The militia forces of the Velius systems were being trained to top performance, and soon the military scientific community would release their plans for robot soldiers._

Time was not on their side, he knew though. Given time, the Velius forces would prove unstoppable, especially with the robot war machines. The six planets of Kalaina were set at the front of the borders between the galactic powers. As he saw, Marcus knew that this system would prove critical in the war. His stronghold would be here, and it was already under way. He looked down at his control console. Three full battle fleets were here now, not including his own. The Army was here in great force, with over a dozen corps of tanks, infantry, and combat-walkers stationed on his fleet transports. The Zerg had not given much value to the Protectorate, and it would pay dearly for that.

Marcus shrugged, even if his thoughts calculated victory. He knew that no plan survives the battlefield. The Zerg were great enemies, and he knew they had yet to assault him in the full extent of their numbers. Tapping into Terran networks, he had discovered much about the Zerg, and sent those retrieved files back to the High Command. He'd let them decide what to do with the files he had obtained for them. _Come to me, Zerg. Unleash you wrath, or I will crush you without you knowing the cause of your death._

Another scream broke the air, the shock of artillery shells thundering. The cannons of the Mjölnir artillery-walkers fired again, wreaking havoc with the Zerg lines at the colony. The elite of their battalion was reduced to hitting fringe world colonies of the Zerg. Gregor ground his teeth in annoyance. His own vehicle, a great Titan, watched over the battlefield. His arm pods were armed and ready, each arm holding a 45mm autocannon and a 37mm burst laser. The streams of laser and gunfire massacred the Zerg lines of Zerglings, no match for the Titans. Not in their numbers of merely a few dozen. The company of Titans took them down even before they could get near.

The only true challenge the Zerg could field when matched in numbers were the dreaded Ultralisks. On occasion, stronger strains of other Zerg units, such as Zerglings and Hydralisks, were encountered. Those caused some problems also, but quite surprisingly, in not enough numbers to overwhelm the Titans and their supporting infantry and Mjölnir. Gregor slowly walked forward, his visual screen showing the packs of Zerg blown apart by the precision accuracy of the Mjölnir's cannons. The Zerg had no air support on this battle.

A crackle of static caught Gregor's ears. The crackle was faint, barely detectable. Gregor thought about it for a moment before deciding to investigate the signal. The colony attack was well under control. He took his alpha lance with him, heading east, where the transmissions seemed to originate. The signal strength grew, Gregor's Titan's systems locking onto the origin of the communications. His Titan crossed over the crest of the hill, which was made of some kind of material that interfered with the short-range transmission. The sight that greeted him was unnerving. Well over ten thousand Zerg move onward, heading for the hill. Just in front of Gregor and his lance was a heavy infantry platoon. "Commander, what the hell happened here?" Gregor immediately opened up a channel. The unsettled platoon captain shook his head. "A mass drop from off-planet. Came from the dark side, under cover of the storm." The ground trembled as the Zerg charged, spurred on by their Ovelords. Gregor mashed the emergency button, calling on all chanels and frequencies for support. In the distance, he could see the Zerg host pause for a few moments, as more forces from the rear rushed up to meet them. _A Cerebrate is supervising this._

The dark shadows of the Zerg horde slowly advanced on the hill. Gregor cursed again and looked at his screens. The Angel frigates were only beginning to move to support them, and it was only moments before the Zerg would reach them. Gregor switched his channels to that of his lance. "Rich, deploy your shields and shutdown all other systems. Keep the shields up, you hear?" Gregor switched again just as he heard his lancemate's reply. Gregor knew that Rich was inexperienced among them. They needed time, and deploying the Titan's shield system would do just that. Rich's Titan knelt down on the ground, the infantry troops huddling around the four combat walkers. A faint blue screen appeared around them, dome shaped. The shield system would render the offense ability of Rich's walker to nearly nothing, as it would consume much of the energy output his reactor core made.

It came up none too soon, as Guardians began launching globs of acid spores at them. The balls of corrosive slime spattered against the shield projected. The acid sizzled, but had no other effect. With the longer ranged weapons carried by the infantry platoon, small cluster-rockets burst into the ranks of Zerg, killing a dozen or so with each missile. Tens of thousands still came on, the first few Zerglings clawing at the shields. The Titans and infantry let loose with their weapons, autocannons, lasers, and assault rifles. Gregor launched a missile here and there, choosing particularly congested patches of Zerg to hit. His ammunition would last for some time, but in the back of his mind, he wondered if he'd live to use all of it. A sudden burst of fire from the east caught his attention.

The remainder of his company had caught up with him and deployed two of their Titan's shields. The remaining six Titans triggered their weapons, causing more Zerg to perish. The shield of Rich wobbled a bit, the Zerg claws and spines starting to eat at the shield strength. "Captain, my shield's are staring to strain." Rich's voice contacted him through the comm. Gregor merely nodded and mumbled to Rich of staying on it. A flock of Mutalisks screamed, their glaive wurms scratching away at the shielding. A long distance missile launch by anti-air missiles took a few down and scattered them. "Where are the frigates?" The infantry commander asked of him, opening the channel again. "I've called them in already, hold your ground."

Gregor shut the connection down again. _Hold your ground. He shook his head. He looked around and saw that all around the shield, dozens of Zerg attacked and battered themselves against the shield, eager to rip into the small group of Terrans. As the shields slowly began to fade, and the first few Zerglings battered through the fading protection, a devastating line of artillery fire rained down on the Zerg lines. The Mjölnirs had arrived, along with the rest of the Elites. The Zerg withdrew after a few terse moments, the sudden barrage of Mjölnir cannon fire and the hammer blows of the Dragon tanks in their deployed modes killing hundreds of them in mere seconds. It was then when the Angel frigates of the Velius Navy arrived as well, a deluge of laser bolts harassing the retreating Zerg._

Gregor breathed, relieved at the timely arrival of the rest of the Army forces. The scattered carcasses of the Zerg, numbering over three thousand as he was to learn afterwards, decorated the landscape. The bulk of the Zerg forces retreated though, and with held their power for now. _We would have lost. Gregor realized that, if they had continued to attack. They would have lost most of their troops, yes, but they would have won. Gregor shuddered despite himself, resolving never to underestimate the power of Zerg numbers again. He muttered into his computer records. "Note, find ways to bring more firepower to the battlefield in the smallest number of troops." He closed down the recording channel and saw Rich undeploy from his shield projector state._

Above him, a trio of Trentinos hovered, ready to evacuate the Terran forces. The Navy needed to be more thorough with its bombardments, he decided.

A small super-boosted projectile screamed through the silence. The bullet ripped through the last of the holographic Hydralisks. Castor reloaded his sniper rifle, as did the others of Jean's team. A soft voice reached Jean's ears. "Zerg attack simulation over. Total Zerg eliminated over three minutes is fifty-six. Disabled Zerg is four. Casualties sustained by friendly forces is zero. Congratulations on a flawless simulator run Commander." A hiss-pop of the simulator pod opening greeted his ears. Jean opened his eyes to the relatively dim light of the simulator chamber of the Defiance base erected on Kalaina VI. He shook his head and got out of the pod, a few cheers from fellow Shades coming alive around him.

Castor slapped a hand on his shoulder. "Nice run boss, I believe that ends today's training sessions?" Jean looked at his friend's face, a bit tired from the rigorous training that Jean had prepared for them today. Jean looked down at his watch. "Just one more thing to do, a cakewalk really." Castor nodded. Among his team, Castor prided himself to be the fittest of them all, and a glance at the rest of his teammates showed that he was somewhat more resilient then the rest. The next test though, was not of skill or strength or intelligence. It wasn't any part of the normal training regimen of any Shade team. He wanted to keep on top, he reminded himself. And this idea had been nagging him for some days now since it seemed to have been planted in his mind.

Jean led them out of the base after some cleaning up and taking some gear, he took a small hover-APC. The small vehicle sped across the grasslands to where the Shade teams practiced their sniping. They soon reached the sniping area, and as he brought the vehicle to a halt his teammate began readying their rifles for practice. He motioned them to put them down. "We won't be needing those this time." He looked at the puzzled expressions of his comrades and smiled. "This is something new."

The team sat on a small outcrop in the mountain cliff, near the sniping zone. Victor was the first to respond. "You want us to us our psychic talents in actual combat?" Jean nodded his manner serious. Victor shook his head. "You've got to be kidding, our guns and weapons are effective enough." Jean shook his head. "No, effective is not the right word. They are more efficient over a small amount of time, yes, but not necessarily more effective against the Zerg." Castor shrugged. The others looked skeptical. Jean frowned. "At any rate, they are part of what make us Shades. Psychic abilities aren't just for killing Cerebrates, Overlords and Queens. Although they are the mind of the Zerg host, the arm is yet very powerful. It is that that we must stop. The mind is no threat if we can kill their legions, and without their legions the minds are harmless. All of you have studied the Zerg extensively, from species to species within their amalgamation of species.

All of them have their weaknesses and strengths, all of them are powerful in their own right. All of them have been killed by Protoss time and time again, even with minimal technology in their hands. What are we without our guns? They are machines, and machines fail us from time to time. We need different weapons as well." It was at this point when Victor interrupted him "Fine. Psionic powers are formidable, but the one question lies. How do learn to use them?" Jean smiled at them enigmatically. "You've always wanted to be the best. You are in fact the best. All of us are capable of doing things on our own. Learn on your own, in secret from the rest of the Shades. You how it is, the Velius forces are the best of the Terrans. We know that for a fact now." Castor smiled and nodded. "The Shades are the pride of the Velius forces, we know." Jean chuckled. "We are the elite of the Shades, the best of the best. Who are we?" A brief yell echoed in the canyon.

"We are the Shades of Velius, First Omega!"

As the commandos of the Shade team made their way down the cliff, a shadowy figure watched from a distant cavern entrance. Glowing silver eyes gleamed in the shades of dusk. Judaris smiled in his mind, knowing that this was one event he had set into motion personally. The dark templar straightened up, his full height nearly the same as the cavern entrance's diameter. He stalked back to the inner parts of the chamber, where it gradually got larger, the cave tunnel. In the darkness, a small shimmering vessel lay awaiting his touch. The Corsair's drives hummed silently, power contained within the hull of the space craft. With some pride, he knew that he could outpilot the best of the Velius White Hawk pilots. He was interested in the Shadowblades though, for they sported some very familiar advanced technology. 

Very interested.

He shrugged and ascended, climbing into his craft's cockpit. In a short while, the Corsair sped off into the darkening night skies of Kalaina VI. He pondered the recent events that had occurred. He had an accidental brush with the Terran Commando leader just prior to Kalaina VI. The untapped strength the Terran had was surprising, in his judgement. He suspected that more lay beneath, and that the Terran had enough power to rival many High Templar. He suspected that the High Templar would have quite a fit about that, and imagining that he chuckled. When he returned, he'd see how much progress they would have had in the week or so he was away to Æxius' base, then to Shakuras for a more official report ion this discovery.  He would have some interesting reports to make to Æxius and Shakuras

Some very interesting reports at that. 

Note: To all my reviewers, please keep on reviewing. I appreciate the feedback. As for Jean's team, they were redesignated First Omega, from the informal name of Team Stella, which was mentioned in Chapter 3. If you spot any "lapses" in names etc. please contact me. I will post my reasons for any changes.


	6. The Renaissance: Piercing Arrow

Piercing Arrow 

The holographic map of the galaxy slowly turned in his view. The holograph then changed, as the controller zoomed in, once, then twice, revealing to the viewers the entirety of the Koprulu sector, as well as their own. The admiral stood in front of the image, the quick meeting between him and his superiors about to begin. The supreme commander of the fleet, Fleet Admiral Richard Kobbens, nodded, telling Marcus to begin. With a nod of his own, and clering his throat with a cough, Marcus turned to the imaging of the Korpulu sector and the surrounding sectors.

"Admirals, Generals and officers of the armed forces, I'm here to give you an update on the situation of the expeditionary fleet and its accompanying forces. At this point, its been exactly one year since we made the decision to move into the Koprulu sector and eliminate the Zerg." He turned to the holos and brought up a pointer. As of now, we've been hunkered down here at the Kalaina system, weathering numerous Zerg attacks. Ever since the first attack upon us to struggle for control over the system, the Zerg haven't sent any other major forces against us, merely raids and the like."

He tapped a few more keys on a panel. "The remaining Terran forces in the sector are bunched up together. They do not know yet of our presence on the outer rims of the sector. The Protoss, have disappeared for the most part, having only a few worlds in the sector that we can reach. These are primarily military garrisons, for the purpose on keeping an eye on the Zerg and the Terrans. It may be possible to contact them, but since Aiur the Protoss-Terran relations have gone quite strained.

"Now, the Zerg have a majority control over most of the sector, holding dozens of worlds for their armies to grow and thrive on. Their numbers are well over the millions in fighting forces, and as we know, they have no equivalent of civilians whatsoever, unlike the Protoss or us. Their whole population of probably a few million for the larger broods, and up to a minimum of some hundreds of thousands for the smaller broods is dedicated to war and combat. With that force, it is the reason why I've decided to delay any attack on them for so long. As of now, they merely consider us another bunch of the Terran 'scum', and unworthy of any major action, unlike the Dominion of Mengsk, which has managed to coerce the others into cooperating with him." He tapped a few more keys, and the images changed once again.

"Here we have Kalaina and the surrounding solar systems which we have taken, occupied, cleared of Zerg infestation and finally, colonized to gear for war.  Thanks to the past few months of relative inactivity, which I know you all are growing impatient with, I've managed to create a force capable of invading and liberating the infested worlds in the heart of the sector. I waited this long, since if I left Kalaina and the rest of the worlds with all the forces I had when we gained control of this system, it would have been just enough to attack, but not hold those planets for long. Thanks to our scientific community, I've now the troops in which to hold those worlds, as I have reported a week ago. In a few days, my armada and its forces will strike deep into the core of the Koprulu sector, hitting various key world, and landing garrisons and factory-craft to sustain our momentum."

Marcus tapped his control panel once more, showing a few arrows which showed the path he was planning. "My second campaign is to destroy the Zerg. Although I know that propaganda states that this campaign is with that intention, I had to change it into a systematic military colonization of worlds to help us in the long-term, which is now. In a few days, I shall begin the true campaign to wipe out the Zerg from this galaxy, and end its menace. I do ask however, in case, for additional forces to secure the planets and systems I have 'colonized' during the first stage of this war."

As Marcus spoke to his superiors via commnet over lightyears away, at their respective command centers, Justin waited outside his uncle and commander's chambers. His eyes looked out through the window, his gaze watching as tens of thousands of troops stood at attention in the field, stoic and fearless. The ranks of combatants stood unmoving with their assault rifles at the ready, connected to the heavy power packs on their backs that provided a nearly limitless supply of energy for their heavy and somewhat cumbersome burst lasers. Justin smiled, then turned as he heard the faint chime of the Admiral's door being unlocked. He spun around and placed his cap in his head, then strode inside. He saw his uncle at his desk, watching the troops outside as well.

"How did it go?" he paused, then added, "Sir."

The admiral nodded, hands clasped behind his back. "As expected, as expected. I delivered my report, and as per my request they are sending two garrisons worth of troops and a planetary defense fleet here to secure the system. With the extensive orbital defenses, they should be more than enough to take on another Zerg offensive in comparable size to that which we encountered here initially." He looked back at Denoshin. "Draw up deployment plans for them to follow when they get here. And issue a general state of readiness, the first phase of the Korpulu Center Campaign is about to begin."

A wistful look passed over Marcus' face. "History is about to be written, my dear nephew, on a grander scale than I had ever hoped to take part in." He chuckled, and the prodigy that was Justin Denoshin smiled and nodded.

 "As ordered, Admiral Brightonn." He spun on his feet and left the room, quickly moving into action and contacting his subordinates to get the orders underway. Little did either know, for all their military brilliance, that Admiral Marcus' words would prove so true. Outside, the hundreds of lines of the Admiral's troops stood patiently, awaiting their commands.

4 Days Later… 

Warp space, Nick decided, provided the Velius Protectorate's forces with an advantage that most other spacefarers of Terran origin did not have. For one thing, they did not have to travel in a necessarily straight line, like the majority of most Terran craft that the colonists used. Also, it was much faster and efficient than any other means of travel, save perhaps, the reports on the Protoss' own warp technology, which could transport far larger objects than the Protectorate warpgates could, but consumed more energy, and of the psionic type as well. Still, Nick mused, the technology available and used by his people was good enough. Far superior than the Dominion's at any rate. A soft chime alerted him to the imminent arrival at their destination. He quickly activated his communication systems and adjusted their protocols and set the channels he needed.

As he his comm unit came on line he could hear the last of one of his pilots mutter about another boring raid. He smiled faintly, knowing that only the squadron commanders and the higher ups knew where they were heading. Although everyone had simulated combat against the projected Zerg forces at an imaginary system, most of them had not been able to connect the simulated world with a real one. He remembered to stress the _most. The reporting signals told him that all his pilots had checked in with a comm click, and stated combat readiness. The new guy in the squadron, a seemingly devious-looking guy had been the first, and Nick knew the pilot itching to take a crack at the Zerg._

"Warp in countdown, in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…" The fuzzy, blue colors of warpspace faded to reveal the better-defined speckles of stars, and the sphere of the world in front of them. A planet where it all began, the rise of the Zerg in the sector, now reshaped in the image of its owners, the Zerg.

Chau Sara.

As they got into the Sara solar system, his sensors detected almost immediately upon warp in the large numbers of Zerg. Hundreds and hundreds of mutalisks, the workhorse so to speak of Zerg aerial and space power, lazily flew around the planet. A moment later, the hundreds of lifeforms, estimated to be at least at twelve hundred, or equivalent to a hundred squadrons of fighters, were jolted into action by their Overlords. From the planet, his scanning sensors detected a rising mass of scourges and devourer-type forms, a collective thousand again, more of devourers than the smaller suicidal scourges. The smile on his lips faded, replaced by an expression of grim determination.

"White Knights, break into trios and fire as they come into range."

A soft chorus of rogers greeted his order. As the two waves of space borne insectoids closed, coming about ten kilometers from his squadron, hundreds of flashes of lights appeared around him and his pilots, the vanguard of the fleet. On the general communications channel, he saw on one of his screens the reports of other of the fleet squadrons as they came on.

"Black Knights squadron, ready."

"Crescent Moon squadron, ready."

"Huntress squadron, ready."

And so forth, the ready reports amounting to over fifty different squadrons. From behind them, the slightly slower Angel-class frigates moved into position, a pair for each squadron. Then lastly, over twenty battlecruisers, dozens of smaller destroyers, and the new Draconis-class battleship that was Admiral Marcus Brighton's flagship, arrived. The larger craft began to unleash their weapons at the masses of Zerg, their guns having longer ranges than the smaller ones on the fighters. However, by now, the Zerg combatants had closed to two kilometers, well in range of the fighter craft's missiles.

"White Knights, engage!"

The Blackwing fighters accelerated and the two forces joined in combat, with smaller waves of Zerg rising from Chau Sara to support their brethren already in combat.

From the control center on the _Koprulu Fire, his massive six-kilometer long warship, Admiral Brightonn conducted with his efficient, military ability the assault on Chau Sara. Though razed to the ground by the Protoss almost two decades ago, the Zerg had managed to thrive on it. The evidence of that were the approximately three thousand lifeforms of mutalisks, devourers, and guardians that had come from the planet to its defense. All around him, his fleet's force of dozens of the frighteningly effective anti-fighter Angel frigates constantly shot down the dozens of scourges attempting to suicide on the __Koprulu Fire. The few that did get through the screen of literally hundreds of laser batteries shooting at them did only minor damage to the gargantuan warship with its reinforced shields, situated at the rearmost of the fleet. From where it was, the Draconis-class battleship had managed to pinpoint the many clusters of Zerg hives, lairs, and hatcheries on planet. With a hand gesture, he gave the order to move his ship into the fray._

Its massive primary weapons, heavy cannons created for the purpose of orbital bombardment and anti-capital ship combat, slowly charged to pound the Zerg bases on the ground. He had expected the Zerg to throw their numeric superiority at him, and count on their ability to create forces at a startling rate on base. He could do little about the numbers, but he was going to eliminate their ability to reinforce their troops. A cannon hummed with power, and the bridge shuddered as he gave the order to fire. A thick bolt of coherent light pierced the darkness of space, originating from his ship and lancing down. The energy blast instantly fried any Zerg caught in its path. In a moment, the fusion blast, nearly four meters in diameter, hit the ground. The bolt expended its energy and exploded, creating a crater of more than twenty meters wide, and five meters deep in the ground. Five seconds later another bolt flashed down to the ground from a different cannon, creating the same effect.

The Draconis-class warship had twenty batteries of these, each battery having three cannnons. As these pounded the ground, their rate of fire increasing as all the cannons opened up, the rest of the _Fire's weapons, more than a hundred laser batteries on each side, and at least a thousand individual laser quads optimized for anti-fighter combat opened up. The blizzard of energy from the ship killed dozens of Zerg in moments. Far to the rear, farther back then where his flagship was, a dozen bulbous warships awaited his order. He checked his screens on his command module again, noting the numbers of the Zerg left and their locations. The Zerg forces waxed and waned, as reinforcements continued to arrive from on planet._

"Commander Denoshin, order the _Kalaina Heart, __Dracen's Pride, and the __Lauritania with their fighter and Angel-frigate escorts to disengage from the main battle and move to escort the Bombardiers. Order the Bombardies to move into position and open fire at the clusters." Justin nodded and spoke to the communications officer. The arrival of the __Koprulu Fire would replace the firepower that the three retreating battlecruisers carried. The Angel frigates that acted as its anti-fighter screen was nearly equal to the ones that protected the other ships.  The ships leaving met up with the globular looking Bombardier-class ships, then took up a positon slightly distant from the main skirmish. The twelve craft opened up, revealing four cannons similar to the heavy Fusion-class cannons that the Draconis-class battleship carried. Similar in look, if not in size, since these cannons were larger by far, and solely intended for the purpose of wreaking havoc against planetary targets._

The initial cascade of bolts from the small force flashed and pummeled a Zerg base. The destructive power unleashed by one of the bolts was equal to a standard tactical nuclear warhead, sans the radiation. As the effects of the first cannonade was felt, the mass of Zerg mutalisks, guardians, devourers, and scourge immediately shifted their focus to destroy the lethal craft. Marcus smiled, and had moved his massive ship to block their path just as the orbital-bombardment ships were charging up. The sudden change of focus enabled the fighter forces of the fleet, as well as the fighter-support Angel frigates, a few moments to take a breath and reinforce their shields, while the capital ships and their own screens of Angel frigates took the brunt of the Zerg assault wave.

The coordination the Zerg had shown merely a few moments earlier was now gone. Marcus concluded that the Cerebrate in charge was killed, for the moment, and a lesser Cerebrate had taken the reins of command for the interim. Knowing that the opportunity to strike was at hand, he tapped a key on his control panel. A few seconds later, a second smaller fleet of craft warped in, waiting at the edges of the Sara system. This fleet was composed of dozens of Mediterranean and Trentino assault dropships, carrying within their cargo bays tens of thousands of troops, tanks, and combat walkers. Ground attack ships accompanied them, consisting of modified Angel frigates, whose missile batteries had been replaced with additional shield systems and rocket-launchers, as well as a bomb-system.  When the cerebrates were gone, the battle would be essentially over.

From orbit, the destruction wrought by the Bombardiers looked startling. On the ground, it seemed as if the Zerg had never recolonized Chau Sara. The ground, which was covered in the creep just thirty or so minutes ago, was cracked and relatively dry, with only a few shreds of the moist creep left. There were few, if any, lifeforms were detected in the kill zone that the Bombardiers had initially hit. Now the massive space-cannons were pummeling other bases. Though far, Jean could swear that every time a salvo hit, he felt the earth tremble. He wasn't much wrong in that. His team swept the one of the last two locations where heat had been detected from a lifeform. There was a fifty-fifty chance that it would be a cerebrate, since there was one more left, the other being investigated by another team of Shades, Omega Three.

The anticipation he felt in his team was replaced by slight annoyance when they heard Omega Three report in to say that the cerebrate in the area was indeed at their location, and had been severed and killed. Before anyone could say anything, he switched to the channel the Shade teams shared and reported in to the commanding officer at the Shade Trentino dropship. "This is Omega One Alpha, will sweep the last area before returning to base, just for confirmation of clean zone." The Shade officer back at the dropship acknowledged.

"Sir, if the cerebrate's been killed, this last form is just probably another Zerg underling." That one was Castor, Omega One Gamma.

Jean switched back to his team's private frequency. "Can't waste a chance anyway, can we?" The silence that greeted him was confirmation enough. The drew near to the last heat sign, and it came into view. The massive body of what seemed to be an Overlord singed by one of the massive fusion bolt lay in a crater, struggling to stay alive. It twitched as they neared it, sensing their presence. The team gathered on the edge of the crater, rifles at the ready. He saw them aim at the creature, but immediately waved them to stop. "I've got an experiment to try." The look of confusion on their faces was momentary, as was the feeling of confusion in their minds. For the past months the group had trained extensively to use their psychic-psionic skills, and this was a chance to use it.  Jean had often wondered what the mind of a Zerg with brains was like, since he never really had the chance to find out.

His hand touched the overlord, and he opened his mind. The rush of images, feelings and thoughts made him grit his teeth. Using sheer force of psionic will, he hammered them down into a small compact thing, and absorbed it into his mind, binding it. The strain was taxing, but the practice he had over the past months had proven very helpful. He opened his eyes to find himself lying in one of his team member's arms. Victor, he finally recognized, even through the helmets. His comrade had slapped his commanding officer back awake. Jean stood up dizzily, the effort of saving the overlord's memories, knowledge, and mental profile into his own was draining. He mad made sure that the thoughts wouldn't seep out, as what had happened the first time he attempted this, with an animal. The memory of that left his teammates laughing, since the animal in question had been in heat. The emotional output from the beast had been strong, and he had struggled against it.

This time he was more practiced, and sure of his skill. He blinked then realized that the others were shooting the overlord. Before he could do anything else Victor shook his head. "Its dead, mentally. We felt you suck its brains out with psionic power." Jean nodded, then took back his rifle from Victor. The others stopped shooting, leaving Cameron behind at the crater's edge. After a moment, he threw something in and ran towards them. As he closed, the crater containing the cripple overlord exploded into flame, the carcass of the creature fried and dismembered.

The psionic scream again reached her mind. She shook herself, feeling anger reverberate in her heart. _They have killed yet another, at Chau Sara. I had thought these impudent rebels had stopped, and the victory at Kalaina a fluke The figure hissed, its profile enlarging as wings spread. As horrifying as she was majestic, the Queen of Blades was fearsome no matter what her mood was in. Now, it was decidedly dark._

"Fools…" She growled, raising her hands, no, claws. "I was lenient enough with you when you took Kalaina. Content to merely focus on damnable Mengsk. But you have to distract me. The Zerg have beaten all their foes since they existed, when we truly devoted ourselves to it." A low laugh filled the chamber. "Not since the Protoss, since Shakuras and Aiur have I seen such a challenge to my power." She dragged a talon on the wall. "Actually, not even the second Aiur, for the Protoss there live in fear of me, should I commit the full force of the Zerg."

Her eyes narrowed.

"I think its time I showed you Terrans who controls the galaxy." From her palace on Char, she looked out onto the world, her planet made in her image. She gazed out, seeing the heavily guarded form of the remade Overmind, her slave, and her underling.

"Chau Sara has been attacked."

The message reached across the galaxy, the psionic impulse from an observer who had attached itself on the Draconis-class battleship, the _Koprulu Fire, piercing into the mind of the Urkhal Templar. His eyes flashed with this knowledge, and he nearly jumped out of his seat with the realization of what this meant. When the Terrans of the Velius Protectorate had seemed to be content with colonizing its newly conquered worlds and staying put, ending their campaign against the Zerg, Judaris had grown slowly impatient with them. He had not understood why they stopped then, but with this new piece of knowledge, he understood. Also, the training he had experienced since then, had opened up his mind to further wisdom which he tapped._

He now knew that the man in command of that force, which had liberated the minor Zerg colonies with relative ease, was being wary of the Zerg. That was wise. But this attack on a major Zerg planet, rather than on a somewhat less important one, showed that the commander had courage as well. All this occurred in his mind in an instant, in the time it took for his eyes to flash, narrow, close, then reopen. He straightened, as he had bowed over a bit when the message hit him. Beside him, Æxius put a hand on his shoulder, a frown in his expression. His companion had felt the impulse, near as they were, and as sensitive the other Urkhal Templar was in psionic powers. His tone conveyed both concern, and an order.

"What is it?"

Judaris shook his head slightly, the dimmer light of the council chamber blurring a bit as he did so. He waved his friend's hand away. "I'm all right, there is nothing wrong."

A deep voice reverberated in the smallish chamber. "Templar Judaris, do you feel well enough to continue your report on the Velius Terrans?" A pair of glowing eyes looked straight at the younger Protoss.

Judaris shook his head. "I am perfectly fine, Praetor Zeratul." He paused as he thought his words. "I have just received information of an important occurrence, transmitted to me by a personal Observer probe." He blinked, wondering what the ancient Protoss leader's reaction would be. "The Velius Protectorate forces are invading Chau Sara."

Æxius straightened to his full height in surprise. "What? Why…oh, yes." He stopped himself as he too realized what Judaris had deduced moments ago. The glowing orbs that were Zeratul's eyes fleetingly disappeared as he blinked, the only visible sign that he heard.

"Interesting, the new Terrans." He softly spoke. After a brief intermission of silence, he rose from his seat. "Urkhal Templar Judaris, Æxius." The two shifted their stance, awaiting the Templar's word. The dim light of Shakuras softly shone through the transparent portions of the council chamber, viewports to the outer world. Zeratul raised one of his hands and gestured at the two younger Templars, among the most promising of the newer generation, who came of age at the height of the Terran-Zerg-Protoss war. "Since the time of Tassadar, the Protoss have stayed on Aiur, then Shakuras, fending off the Zerg power. We are the Children of the Xel'Naga, in a way, the brothers to the Zerg in that fact." He noticed the slight shudder that ran through the pair, though to most other eyes it would have gone unnoticed.

"The rift between the Dark Templar and Templar has closed much since then, following the path that the hero Tassadar chose." He looked at them intently. "It is again time to act, my brethren." 

From the shadows of the chamber, another figure came into view, the High Templar Artanis. It was he who now nominally led the Protoss of Aiur, and his presence here was not known, and startled the Urkhal Templar. He nodded sagely, agreeing with Zeratul. "Indeed, it is. We had suspected that the Terrans, the new ones, would do this. They appear to have the same noble attitudes that our comrade Raynor once had before, am I not right, Zeratul?" His words, though in the form of a question, was delivered more like a statement.

"Yes, indeed." He turned from Artanis to look at Judaris. "Will these Terrans be amenable to an alliance between our races as once before?"

The Urkahl Templar fidgeted, an unusual thing. "We are not sure, Praetor. I suspect they are though, but we have no solid proof that they may be considering such with us."

"Can your personnel not infiltrate their command centers and headquarters?" Zeratul inquired, slightly surprised at this.

Judaris sadly shook his head. "Not as of now, Praetor. The Protectorate has significantly more advanced technology than the other Terrans, and use this to its utmost extent. Their command areas are also much more heavily protected, by troops of superior capabilities than the other Terrans." He paused for a moment, then seeing that Artanis and Zeratul were listening, continued. "However, we are able to monitor their rank and file with no problem, as well as their mid-level command. Only the highest levels of their command structure is, at the moment, inaccessible."

Zeratul shifted his postion. "Indeed." He looked at Artanis and turned to leave, letting the other Protoss finish the session.

"Urkhal Templars, receive this command from our High Council." The pair knelt, their heads bowed down in front of the High Templar. "Templar Æxius, Templar Judaris, your command of Observer task force 917 is hereby relieved from you." He could feel the slight shock emanating from them. He knew that they had performed well, admirably well. Well enough that they almost expected to continue to command their modest force. He mentally smiled though. "Templar Æxius, Templar Judaris, please rise." The two slowly stood, Judaris slower than Æxius. Artanis' eyes glowed with amusement. "Templar Judaris, you are hereby appointed Executor of the Expeditionary Protoss Fleet with Templar Æxius as your aide and second in command."

"Executor? Praetor Artanis—" Judaris stuttered, shocked by the promotion. Artanis' eye flickered to his companion, Æxius. The other Protoss warrior was less shocked by this, and seemed to be pleased, as far as Artanis could tell.

Artanis waved, quieting the Templar. "Your orders await you in your new flagship, Executor. For a brief summary of it, you are to track the Protectorate progress and continue to observe them. You are still not to reveal yourselves, until we can positively determine that the Protectorate high command will be friendly enough to ally with us, to destroy the Zerg. You shall assist the Terrans however, by hitting the minor Zerg colonies, to help deprive the Zerg of troops. Only if under the severest of circumstances are you allowed to contact or directly assist the Protectorate forces. This is all we can do, since the Aiur campaign has exhausted our forces. The ships you command will suit the protocols of your orders. That is all, Templar." As his words began to sink in Judaris' mind, as well as of the more composed Æxius, he turned to leave.

 "En Taro Tassadar."


End file.
